Perspectives in Psychology

Perspectives in Psychology

Introduction

As progressions have been made in the field of psychology, the perspectives on the subjects have been changed to a great extent. However, there are still some perspectives that comprise of core values which has caused them to stay the same even in today's technologically advanced world, where new theories continue to emerge. John Watson, Edward Tolman and B.F. Skinner all played an important role in the field of psychology as they devised theories that are considered the basis for various schools of thought in the world of modern-day psychology (Gray, 2006).

John B. Watson

Watson built on from the teachings of Henry Donaldson and James Angell and started the formation of his own theories related to the topics of behavior, which was later referred to as 'behaviorism'. This allowed him to be known as the founder of the concept of behaviorism in the area of psychology. The theory of behaviorism he devised is known as a philosophy of psychology which is based on the assumption that everything which people do, such as thinking, feeling and acting, can certainly considered to be behaviors and that is how they should be treated. His theory was considered to be classical behaviorism, and is also known as classical conditioning. According to Watson, behavior was purely elicited and he felt that did not actually experience emotions, instead the emotions were an answer to some other stimulus. Watson felt that behaviorism could be used to lay the basis of scientific theories that were more objective.

Watson is most famously known for the experiment he carried out with little Albert. Albert was a little child who used to come to laboratory everyday with his parent laboratory worker. Watson experimented with a rat on Albert in order to see the effects of a stimulus. The rat was the stimulus in that experiment and every time the rat was presented to Albert, a play behavior would be elicited (Coon & Mitterer, 2010). Watson introduced the sound of a hammer hitting on a metal bar every time Albert would play with the rat, and this caused a response of crying to develop in Albert after he was exposed to the sound of hammer numerous times, as the loud sound scared him. The response of fear which developed in Albert turned into generalization of a new stimulus, and Albert ended up exhibiting feelings of fear every time he was exposed to things that were similar to rat, such as dogs, fur coats and men's beards. Watson was not the father of the school of thought of behaviorism, he was also an innovator and contributed greatly to the field of psychology. The word he did related to classical conditioning is still studied today in the psychological context.

B.F. Skinner

Skinner is most widely known for his theory related to operant conditioning as he invented the chamber for operant conditioning and also developed the cumulative recorder. He is also known for developing the concept of rate of response, which became a crucial ...